Google is planning to “engineer” Russian news outlets, including Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik News, out of Google News results.
“We’re well aware of this one, and we’re working on detecting this kind of scenario you’re describing and deranking those kinds of sites,” said Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google-parent Alphabet, after being asked why Google includes Russian news outlets in its results.
“It’s basically RT and Sputnik,” he continued. “We’re well aware and we’re trying to engineer the systems to prevent it.”
According to Motherboard, Schmidt is reportedly worried about the “spread of misinformation—or worse.”
Both RT and Sputnik, which are Russian state-owned companies, have repeatedly been criticized in the United States of America following conspiracy theories about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US presidential election.
In August, Zephyr Teachout, who was fired from a Google-sponsored think tank after praising European Union fines against Google, claimed the company is “coming after critics in academia and journalism,” adding it “is forming into a government of itself.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.
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